Every year, when an NFL draft concludes and teams return to their facilities to look at the state of the roster, it's natural for fans to wonder how they will further address the remaining positional concerns with free agent signings. And those will happen, but this year, that sort of activity will likely wait a few days—at least until the compensatory pick deadline comes and goes.
According to Over the Cap's latest projections, the Kansas City Chiefs are projected to receive three comp picks in the 2027 NFL Draft: a 4th-round pick for losing Jaylen Watson to the Los Angeles Rams and 7th-round selections for the departures of Marquise Brown (Philadelphia Eagles) and Charles Omenihu (Washington Commanders). That's meaningful draft capital, but whether the Chiefs actually retain all three depends on what happens between now and April 28.
That's the deadline. Any unrestricted free agent signed before the first Tuesday after the draft counts in the NFL's compensatory formula. After that, teams can sign whoever they want without consequence. Between now and then, the Chiefs need to be smart. However, they have more flexibility than you might think.
What the Chiefs can do right this minute
The comp formula only tracks qualifying free agents, and not every signing qualifies. A player has to clear a salary threshold to count as a compensatory free agent, and based on this year's numbers, that mark falls somewhere between $3.5 million and $4 million in average annual value. The Chiefs lost Joshua Williams at $3.38M AAV, and he didn't qualify, while Omenihu did at $4M.
That means Kansas City can sign a free agent to a deal below roughly $3.5M per year—say, a one-year, $3M contract—and it won't touch the formula at all.
There are other avenues for the Chiefs to sign someone now, too. Released players don't count regardless of contract size. Trades are completely outside the formula. Re-signing a team's own players also doesn't factor in. It's only a free agent from another team above that salary threshold that would cancel one of those three picks, and even then, it cancels from the bottom up. This means Omenihu's seventh-rounder is the first pick to go, not the fourth-round selection attached to Watson.
How the rest of the league can help
The NFL only awards 32 compensatory picks per draft, and KC's two seventh-round picks are currently inside that cutoff but they're near the bottom. Every time another team signs a free agent before April 28, it can cancel one of their projected comp picks, which is good for the Chiefs.
It's possible that as teams decide to jump back into free agency after the close of the draft on Saturday, some team will decide it's worth it to lose their comp pick, which makes the Chiefs' choices just a bit safer.
At this point, that extra fourth-round choice is essentially guaranteed. The two seventh-rounders are a bit shakier, but there's still a good chance they come through. The Chiefs can still add players between now and April 28, but they just need to be smart about it—at least if they want to recoup a nice bounty of extra draft picks for the 2027 edition. And after the deadline, Brett Veach can chase whoever he wants for any amount of money at all.
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